Pastor's Corner

During the American Revolution, the British soldiers were known as “The Red Coats” because of the red uniforms they wore. This was the distinguishing mark of the British Army. Believers in Christ also have a distinguishing mark by which we are to be known. The mark of a Christian is for us to love one another. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13:35).

Greatest Characteristic

The kind of love that Jesus was speaking of is defined and explained by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. In this passage there are sixteen characteristics that are listed as relating to the greatest virtue, which is love. Paul describes love by explaining what love is and is not like. As he concludes his thoughts on the idea of love, Paul says that of all the things, love is the greatest of all.

Love is the greatest of all characteristics because all the other virtues are directly related to love. When Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit, love is the first virtue that he mentions.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).

“Love is the fountainhead and well spring of all other virtues

[This is why it is listed first. It is the root of the other characteristics.]

Joy is love exulting.

Peace is love resting.

Longsuffering is love enduring.

Gentleness is love in refinement.

Goodness is love in action.

Faith is love confiding.

Meekness is love with bowed heart.

Temperance is love obeying.”

Herbert Lockyer. All the Doctrines of the Bible. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1964), 118.

Greatest Commandment

One day, a Pharisee asked Jesus this question:

“Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” (Matthew 22:36).

Jesus responds:

“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40).

Jesus takes all the 613 commandments [yes there are more than 10] in the Torah and sums them up in 2 great statements. Jesus, in essence, boils down all the Law, the Commandments, and all the teachings of the prophets into one word: Love.

The Church of Ephesus was doing well yet they had one problem: They left their first love:

“I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. (Revelation 2:2-4)

Christ commends them for what they were doing but they were disobeying the greatest commandment of all.

Greatest Conduct

God is a God of love. “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love” (1 John 4:8).

Loving one another is the greatest way that we display our walk with the Lord.

“Be ye therefore followers [Greek: mimts — We are to be imitators and mimic the Lord] of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour” (Ephesians 5:1-2). We are to be like God and mimic Him by walking “in love.” When Paul is talking about “walking” he is referring to our conduct and how we live our lives.

We cannot imitate God in loving one another unless we understand what God’s love is. The supreme demonstration of God’s love was when He gave His own Son to die for us on the cross.

“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).

The sacrificial giving of Jesus is the ultimate example of love.

To love is the Greatest Characteristic, the Greatest Commandment, and the Greatest Conduct that we can manifest in our lives.

Rev. Tim Wall,

pastor

Macedonia Baptist Church